DODIK: I HAVE NO EXPECTATIONS FROM THE APPEALS PROCESS

BELGRADE, JUNE 11 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik stated that he has no expectations from the appeals process before the extra-constitutional Court of BiH, before which everything so far has been staged and rigged.

Ahead of tomorrow's session of the Appeals Chamber, where the defense and the extra-constitutional prosecutor's office will present arguments regarding the first-instance verdict, Dodik emphasized that he is not participating in the process and that the case against him has been rigged from the beginning, leaving no reason to expect anything different now. The President of Republika Srpska stated that his lawyers believe the procedure should be followed and that he instructed them to proceed without his involvement. "We have made certain decisions, and depending on how things unfold, we will likely have to deepen them and make them more operational. Everything depends on the outcome," Dodik told RT Balkan. When asked to comment on the fact that the Ukrainian extremist website Myrotvorets listed him as an enemy of Ukraine, Dodik said it is a distortion to claim such a thing and pointed out that just because he believes Russia's Special Military Operation is entirely justified does not mean he is against Ukraine. "I regularly meet with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, so that's probably how it appears to them. Ukraine indeed made many mistakes. Their `political elite` chose to provoke Russia, to try to deny Russians their rights in Ukraine, language, script, and religion. They are even seizing their church, and that is why the Russian operation is highly justified," Dodik emphasized. He stated that he only says what he is convinced is true, adding that the operation aimed to prevent 15 million or more Russians in Ukraine from being left without their language, without their script, and from being mistreated. Dodik recalled that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Minsk Agreement served Ukraine as a means to arm itself, which, he noted, speaks volumes about their intentions and coordination with Western centers of power, and, until recently, with Biden's America. "The West, in its hysteria and desire to wage war against Russia, sacrificed Ukraine. Whether Ukrainians want to understand that is their problem, but we all have the right to live in delusions," said Dodik. He assessed that what matters most for the Ukrainian people is for peace to be established as soon as possible, adding that they either lack the strength or do not dare to act outside the will of Western centers of power, which are now based in London, Paris, and Berlin. Dodik reminded of the old claim that the West wants two closely related peoples, such as Ukrainians and Russians, to clash. "I am completely convinced that the Russians are right because they had the right to protect their people. The history that shaped Ukraine after the collapse of the former USSR was formed with the deep belief that it would always closely cooperate with Russia," Dodik said. He added that Russia was deprived of Crimea and much more through administrative decisions made during Lenin's time and under communist rule. "So now it seems that the West is defending communist legacies, but that's nothing new from the West. It always harms others," Dodik said.